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G is for… garden

Our series of posts helping you to explore our county is an A-Z of Bedfordshire places, landscapes and history. Each post includes tips for walks and places to visit.

In this feature we take a whistle-stop tour of some of the many gardens across the county. From country houses to museums and kitchen gardens, there’s something for everyone.

Garden rooms

The concept of dividing a garden into smaller spaces or rooms isn’t new. In the early eighteenth century Wrest Park had hidden outdoor rooms alongside the formal paths, woodland areas, statues, buildings and ornaments. In the following century, the Swiss Garden at Old Warden was designed to be experienced as a series of scenes, with the rooms bordered with shrubs and enhanced with sculptures, bridges and buildings. These small areas were designed to be viewed from a series of vantage points, deliberately creating scenic vistas for the visitor. The tradition is continued today at Kathy Brown’s Garden in Stevington which includes garden rooms inspired by artists such as Barbara Hepworth and Mark Rothko.

Landscape gardeners

The eighteenth century saw the rise of landscape gardening. Big names such as Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown and Humphrey Repton designed gardens in Bedfordshire. Brown worked at Wrest Park on a limited scale, softening the edges and curving the canals. His work can also be seen at Southill, Luton Hoo, Ampthill Park and on the Husborne Crawley extension to the Woburn Abbey Park. Brown’s style involved adding informal lakes, lawns and woods to create a more natural looking landscape. Repton designed the gardens at Woburn and worked at Hasells Manor in Sandy, Moggerhanger Park and Battlesden House.

The historic landscape of Ampthill Great Park.

Market and kitchen gardens

Bedfordshire has a long history of market gardening. From the early seventeenth century onwards, food was grown along the Greensand Ridge and in the area around Biggleswade. The good soils meant that a wide variety of crops including beans, salads, herbs, onions, potatoes, peas and carrots could be grown, and the proximity to London ensured a ready market for the produce. Today the gardens at Jordans Mill include many of these vegetables, alongside wheat, oats and barley which were milled on site, and nectar rich planting to encourage pollinators.

Kitchen gardens provided ingredients for many large houses. Early references to kitchen gardens in Bedfordshire include Woburn Abbey (1661) and Ampthill Park (1695). At Houghton Hall in Houghton Regis, the restored walled kitchen garden is tended by volunteers and managed using sustainable methods and recycled items where possible.

Market gardening continues to thrive in Bedfordshire, in 2023 Hillside Market Garden was Highly Commended in the CPRE Bedfordshire Living Countryside Awards because of their focus on championing local, seasonal food.

Museum gardens

In Bedford, the Panacea Museum is home to a peaceful garden, tucked away from the street. The Panacea Society was a religious community founded in the early twentieth century which believed that the gardens of their house stood on the site of the Garden and Eden. The members enjoyed walking, playing games and holding summer garden parties in their secluded garden.

At the Stockwood Discovery Centre in Luton you will find several themed gardens including the Ian Hamilton Finlay Improvement Garden – a classical garden featuring sculptures by the artist, and period gardens ranging from an Elizabethan Knot Garden to the World War II Dig for Victory Garden. There are also Victorian greenhouses and a fernery to explore.

A tranquil spot in Bedford – the Panacea Museum gardens

A lost garden

The atmospheric red brick ruins of Houghton House provide a perfect backdrop for views over the Bedfordshire countryside. Alongside the grand house, there were gardens, a bowling green and an orchard. Although there is very little trace of them today, the house was once surrounded by formal walled gardens, avenues of trees and an artificial ‘wilderness’. A kitchen garden, cherry garden and drying yard stood next to the service wing of the house, where the servants would have lived and worked.

Gardens and wellbeing

In recent years community gardens have sprung up across Bedfordshire. Many of these are managed and maintained by groups of volunteers. Gardens like these are increasingly being used as part of formal or informal wellbeing projects focusing on both physical and mental health. Some of these projects have been recognised in the CPRE Bedfordshire Living Countryside Awards, including the Penrose Roots to Recovery Garden, Treewell Community Farm, Incredible Edible Dunstable, Kings Arms Garden in Ampthill and Warden Abbey Vineyard.

Visit the gardens mentioned in this feature

Wrest Park.